Regarding "Aim to Be a Pokémon Master" and the 2023 anime.

This is arguably one of the most challenging times to address this topic I’ve experienced in years. However, after giving it some thought; I have finally figured out how I want to play this. Here is my plan regarding the miniseries “Aim to Be a Pokémon Master” and the upcoming 2023 anime series based on “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.”

Promotional poster for "Aim to Be a Pokémon Master."

To close out “Pokémon Journeys” and celebrate the legacy of the series as a whole, a miniseries OVA known as “Aim to Be a Pokémon Master” (in reference to the original Japanese theme song) will be airing. The series will detail key events in the anime’s history, billed as the “final chapter” of the story… which should make an interesting transition to the next part of this.

In regards to the Generation IX series, that’s something else entirely. Though details remain sparse at this stage; the series will be led by new characters known as Riko and Roy… which is my primary concern at this stage. I’ve mentioned before that rebooting any series can be hit or miss in this day and age, much less something this successful and long-running. While adaptations that focus on different characters have worked as one-offs (with the Origins miniseries and Detective Pikachu’s live-action film being two examples I love), I have long believed changing the lead is a greater risk than most people realize or admit. I’m not the only one expressing this concern either: most of the talk I’ve heard has been mixed on the reboot. Hair decorations aren’t really as important to me as knowing who a character is and how they operate. 

Promotional image of Riko and Roy alongside Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly.

I also want to make clear that I’m not against the idea itself; just skeptical of the way they’re going about it. If they truly are going for the “Discard and draw” approach, I’m just surprised and confused that they’re not using Florian and Juliana from the games. I will need time to ruminate on this more. Just saying for now that Nemona, Arven and Penny were right there. It’s honestly the first time in ages that I legitimately don’t know what to expect from this iteration. Though the producers have claimed characters from the previous anime will show up; it honestly won’t surprise me if Riko and Roy end up as examples of a “decoy protagonist.” It would hardly be the first time a “final chapter” ended up as anything but.

Overall, though I have my doubts; I will cherish the time I spent with the series and this miniseries if the end of an age is truly upon us. As for the 2023 anime- that’s another story. I’m deliberately keeping my expectations low based on what I’ve been told. That way, if it works; I’ll be pleasantly surprised; and if it doesn’t, I won’t be disappointed. Either way, it won’t really affect what I have planned for the coming year; as I don’t plan on formally addressing either one till they actually release officially in North America. That will be all for now.

Honest Thoughts- It's Time For Pokémon to Leave Team Rocket Behind.

I have been wanting to make this post for ages, and now is as good a time as any. With Pokémon Scarlet and Violet proving a sales success (rough launch aside) and the anime set to be reversioned in 2023 yet again (I will address the matter in a separate post at a later date), here are my honest thoughts on why it's time for the series to leave Team Rocket behind.

While they've never been my favorite characters (the professors have held that distinction, with Legends Arceus and Generation IX furthering that), they have been among the few constants in the 25-year history of the series. They've even spilled over into the video games and other material from time to time. Sometimes they've posed a threat, but they're usually goofy supporting characters at the most. That out of the way,  I'm going to present a few reasons why I wouldn't object to the 2023 anime retiring their characters.

First, is the longevity they've had. Out of all the supporting characters in the anime, Jessie, James and Meowth have had the longest and most consistent presence throughout its run. While I personally would have done it much sooner (say, after Generation II); I think it's a good time to let other villains enter the space and leave as friends; which should make a good segue into my next reason.

Credit: Kiana Mai

Second, would be the opportunity to introduce new villains to the anime: while the video games have had a rotating range of antagonists from Generation III onwards; Team Rocket still remains as the villains after all this time. Not counting supporting roles or spinoffs, they have continued to be the main source of woe for the heroes. The usage of Team Skull, and Guzma in particular in the Sun and Moon series is a good example of what can happen when someone else drives the conflict (I have even more reviews I want to do to showcase this); and no matter what happens in the Generation IX anime; I am open to the possibility of Team Star being included.

Left- Ortega and Atticus. Center- Eri and Giacomo. Right- Mela.

The third reason to illustrate this point is just how significant the shakeups to the anime have been over just the last two generations. Much like the bestselling games that inspired them; the willingness to break the formula has led to some of its best moments in years. This screenshot I took during the World Coronation Series' Masters Eight shows how even if they give up their roles at Team Rocket; they can still have normal lives as podcasters.

Jessie, James and Meowth watching the Masters Eight finals.

However, beyond all this is the changing nature of the franchise itself. Despite claims otherwise, the whole series has been able to honor its legacy while also forging a path forward. The acclaim and success of Legends: Arceus is proof that you can make an entertaining title that makes the best case for both the series' past and its future (it's personally my favorite game of this year). Though I may have my reservations going forward about what the Scarlet and Violet series has planned; part of me does hope they're able to pull it off. If I do have legit problems with the story, characters or visuals; I am not above letting others know. However, if it all works and is success; all is well with the world. While I remain a skeptic about the changes sticking; if these characters can leave the story on a positive note, then maybe all the time they spent onscreen is worth it. It's not even the only continuity where it happened: the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga ended with Jessie and James leaving the organization; getting engaged and even expecting a child together. This collage also shows that while they might have started their relationship with our heroes as enemies, they could leave as friends.

Bottom line: it's okay to not only just have new antagonists in the series; but if they want to retire Team Rocket. They can have a normal life and just be podcasters if they want to. That's all for now, and I will see you all again soon. Take care everyone.

Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles (2022) Review

Hello everyone- Season's greetings. Welcome to my full review of this year’s Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles! The four parts of this special were combined into one handy package for its English dub; so let’s open it up.

We open on a narration about the “World of Pokémon,” leading us to our subject; Arceus! This leads Ash and Goh to Canaleve City in the Sinnoh region; which is taking part in a festival to celebrate Hisui. They’re met by Dawn; who is wearing a similar outfit to her counterpart Akari. Ash and Goh are given special outfits as well, courtesy of Cynthia!

The three are then given a special research task, but elsewhere, trouble is brewing with Galactic admins Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Yep, they’re back, and they even brought back their voice actors. They end up capturing Heatran; and have a major plan with it.

Back with Cynthia, she shows everyone Pokémon from Hisui- along with variants of Growlithe and Braviary, we see Wyrdeer and my personal favorite of the bunch; Basculegion. 

She then hands Ash, Goh and Dawn a supply of Poké Balls modeled on the Hisui region; assigning them to take part in a game, with a preserve being the staging grounds. They’re given three minutes to catch the starters in ancient times: Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott. I honestly really like this sequence, and the clockwork design of the Poké Balls alongside the other Hisuian gear.

Their prize is a collection of tomes from Cynthia’s research: sounds good to me, and I do like how this anime applied more of the archeologist aspect of her character.

Back at Team Galactic’s hideout, their plan begins to take shape. Its purpose- to bring back their leader Cyrus from the Distortion World! As shockwaves emanate from their lair; the sky turns dark and red, which draws out Arceus along with Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit.

Heading towards a mine, Ash, Goh and Dawn discover some Chingling and a Bronzong going mad from the shockwaves; and after their encounter; they meet up with Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit. After getting a glimpse of Arceus, Ash and Dawn tell Goh about their past encounters in Sinnoh; then head to the Pokémon Center.

The injured Pokémon have their wounds treated, and Ash and Dawn meet up with their old friend Brock; and Goh introduces himself. Brock is still studying medicine; with his aides Blissey and Croagunk. They all agree to go to Mt. Coronet in Brock’s medical transport, which can fly. … Huh, and here I am trying to not get hospitalized this season.

Team Galactic activates the device they’re working on; and Dawn sends the information to Cynthia before it’s too late. A beam of light is fired into the sky over Mt. Coronet, and Brock gives chase.

The “Dimensional Gate” is opened as the device starts going haywire, causing their hideout to explode and launching Heatran outside! The heat melts the Dusk Ball it was captured in; sending it on a rampage cloaked in flames!

Brock’s transport arrives just in time to intervene with Heatran’s rampage; determining the beast is headed for the Spear Pillar! I must say that I really like how this special recreated the art style of the DP series with the advances made since then; and kept the rivalry between Brock’s Croagunk and Saturn’s Toxicroak.

Azelf, Uxie and Mespirit try to contain Heatran to the mountain; and Cynthia comes in responding to their message! The sky opens up and lightning cracks over the mountain range! Saturn, Mars and Jupiter try to attack the guardians; but they fight back as they reveal their plan to bring back Cyrus through the dimensional gate!

Goh sends out Cinderace to fight the Galactic admins, and in terms of animation; I really like how the presentation makes this look like a followup to the Diamond and Pearl series with modern production values.

Brock sends out his Steelix to hold off Toxicroak, Skuntank and Purugly; and Ash sends out Dracovish to contain the heat alongside Goh’s Inteleon! 

Cynthia arrives just in time with her Garchomp; and Officer Jenny calls in reinforcements. Brock goes to regroup with the others alongside Steelix; and Cynthia sends out her Roserade to do battle!

Brock comes in to help contain the fires; even taking off his shirt to do so, because reasons. With their combined efforts (and an assist from Dawn’s Mamoswine); they’re able to start cooling the beast down.

Arceus descends from the Dimensional Gate; and shoots down Team Galactic’s chopper! Cynthia restrains the admins with Power Whip; and we begin the final part as Arceus meets with Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit. 

There is only one last hope to contain Heatran and stop its rampage; and Arceus is up to the challenge! Encasing Heatran in a globe of water, Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit levitate everyone else inside! Dawn’s Piplup and Ash’s Pikachu combine their attacks, and have to break through to to Heatran to stop its rampage! This whole sequence is quite impressive for a web special.

Heatran makes it out, and Brock begins tending to its wounds. Saturn makes one last plea to Arceus from his bonds, as the deity ascends back to where they came with Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit. The Galactic admins are sent back to prison as Croagunk jabs Brock when he tries to flirt with Cynthia. Dawn remarks she “Hasn’t seen that in a while.” She high-fives Ash and we close this special on Rei working on his quest in Hisui.

That certainly was interesting, and given how long it took to come stateside; I’m guessing rights issues between rival services (Amazon Prime JP and Netflix US) kept it from happening sooner. 

This special is easily some of my favorite Pokémon anime content in recent memory; a testament to both its legacy and its future. Though I may have my reservations going forward, I am glad to experience this and share my thoughts with you all.

Hope you all enjoyed this present to me and you all, and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Season’s greetings!

Review- Pikachu's Winter Vacation (2022 Christmas Special)

Here it is folks- the last episode of Pokémon Chronicles I haven't yet examined. It's been a long year and longer endeavor to examine this spinoff; but thankfully, it's going to end on a much better note than it started. Let's open up "Pikachu's Winter Vacation."

The first half of this special is called Delibird's Dilemma, in which a Delibird helper has to help retrieve a missing bag on Christmas Eve! Interestingly enough, it belongs to none other than Santa Claus himself; who narrates this section. Before that, we get a shot of Bulbasaur and Chikorita joining the other Pokémon for a bit of ice bowling; as you do.

Strike- "Nice Throw!"

Elsewhere, we see Meowth and Wobuffet going to their lodgings; but they're both slapsticked into a foul-humored Skarmory and the aforementioned Delibird. They're not even being deliberately malicious this time; the conflict of this first part is basically a fetch quest. Meowth denies everything, saying "it wasn't me that did that." Here's the thing, they caught you red-handed creeping with the Skitty next door. Wonder if he's going to claim he'll be your angel or Mr. Boombastic next.

Noctowl catches the errant Delibird, now they must get its packages back together. There's a Grogu plush for John in Vernon, NJ; a WFC Kingdom Tigatron for Dan in Duluth, MI, a Blu-Ray of The Batman for Mike in Santa Rosa, CA; a ZAP Dragonzord for Jason in Dayton, NV and a Switch OLED for Sean in Cheyenne, WY. ... Moving right along, the Pokémon agree to help recover Delibird's cargo before St. Nick makes the big run. The whole sequence is set to the song from their Christmas album, and it's actually pretty nice. For a novelty song, it's one of my sillier traditions in the same vein as "The Night Santa Went Crazy" or Batman Returns (which I'm glad is getting more and more appreciated post-Nolan, post-DCEU and now post-Matt Reeves).

The first parcel is recovered from a passing barge. Noctowl finds the second in a tree, and the search for the third has them searching an alley that has a familiar-looking drink can. 

Johto Cola- taste the season!

They find the third gift hanging on overhead wires, but an Aipom snags it! It also acts like Ukiki from Super Mario 64; and only drops the package after a few snowballs to the face. With 10 minutes to midnight, all the parcels but one are found! Noctowl finds the last one in another tree, recovering it just in time with help from the Aipom from before. Yes, of course the sleigh is flown by Stantler- it would be years before they'd create Wyrdeer.

Now, we come to the final segment I'm reviewing of Pokémon Chronicles, one of the few I enjoy; "Snorlax Snowman." It's been a long time coming, and I will be glad to finally have this done.

While we don't see their trainers out of bed, the episode has a fairly straightforward plot- the Pokémon build the titular Snorlax Snowman; and what starts as a snowy day out becomes a much larger adventure.

That night, the Snorlax Snowman appears outside the window; and beckons the Pokémon to come outside. This is actually the moment I realized this is the Pokémon version of the classic children's story "The Snowman," and that is also another reason why I have an appreciation for the Pikachu shorts; with how effective the nonverbal storytelling is being why these are my favorite parts of Chronicles; and a wonder of what could have been.

The Snorlax Snowman picks an apple from a tree; and then everyone else goes sledding on his stomach before they take a shelf of ice on the water, with the Aurora Borealis above them.

"Aurora Borealis? At this time of year, at this time of day in this part of the country; localized entirely within your kitchen?!"

The ice shelf gets drawn into a whirlpool, and since they don't have the right HM to clear it; they try attacking it instead. The Snorlax Snowman freezes the whirlpool, and this leads to another quite pretty scene. For a Christmas OVA, it's actually a nice-looking short. There's even some water Pokémon in this sort of icy aquarium effect.

Snorlax Snowman helps everyone build an ice boat to get them back to shore, and they make it back with an assist from a couple passing Lapras! That's exactly what I needed after all the banality of this spinoff.

A whole bandshell of Snorlax Snowmen is here to greet this Snorlax Snowman; and he joins them while everyone else goes back to the shore. Though Pikachu and the others are unsure whether what just happened was all a dream; the episode still ends with everyone playing in the snow; and seeing the Snorlax Snowman on top of the hill one last time.

"Pikachu's Winter Vacation" is what this spinoff should have been all along- presenting a different perspective of the series that still understands how it functions. While later adaptations such as Origins, Evolutions, Generations and the Detective Pikachu were able to pull it off; there is little to no reason for me to revisit or recommend Chronicles as a whole. What I've been trying to get across is that save for this and "Pikachu's Christmas Vacation," the premise of this spinoff was effectively undermined by its execution. 

The silver lining is that the quality of future spinoffs improved from here; including what I will be addressing next. See you all Christmas Eve with my full review of Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles.